A Fayette County Circuit Court judge has dismissed a civil lawsuit against veterinarians and a stable owner surrounding the sale of a horse with a genetic abnormality.
Crawford Farms had brought suit against Treadway Racing Stable, Hidden Brook, Keeneland, Dr. Karen Wolfsdorf, and Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in summer 2021 after it purchased a horse named Kept True for $150,000 from the 2021 Keeneland January Sale.
Kept True, registered as a daughter of Yes It's True and the Henny Hughes mare Well Kept, was a homebred for Jeff Treadway's Treadway Racing Stable and ran for three seasons in New York. Kept True won the Broadway Stakes and placed in the La Verdad Stakes. When Kept True retired, the horse was entered into the 2021 Keeneland January sale as a racing/broodmare prospect, where Crawford Farm bought Kept True from the Hidden Brook consignment for $150,000.
After the purchase of Kept True, Crawford said in its complaint that it removed the horse from the Keeneland grounds and had its own veterinarian, Dr. Jeremy Whitman, do a basic exam of the horse. That's when they realized there was something wrong. Whitman said he observed “obvious abnormalities” during palpation of Kept True, including that he could not find the horse's ovaries. After a genetic test, veterinarians discovered that Kept True was genetically XY, meaning that although the horse appears outwardly to be female, the horse is genetically male and does not have normal reproductive anatomy internally.
In its complaint, Crawford indicated Kept True had a certificate of breeding soundness on file with Keeneland at the time of the auction, which was signed by Wolfsdorf. According to Crawford, that certificate indicated the horse was a mare who was anatomically correct and suitable for mating.
Last week, Crawford filed a motion requesting Judge Kimberly Bunnell dismiss the case, which was signed on March 10. The public-facing file provides no additional information as to whether the voluntary dismissal stemmed from a settlement reached out of court.
According to reporting last year from The Blood-Horse, Kept True had been retired and was living in New York.
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